1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to: a liquid droplet ejection head as represented by an ink jet head, a method of wiping thereof, an electronic device provided therewith; as well as a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display device, a method of manufacturing an organic electroluminescent (EL) device, a method of manufacturing an electron emission device, a method of manufacturing a plasma display panel (PDP) device, a method of manufacturing an electrophoretic display device, a method of manufacturing a color filter, a method of manufacturing an organic electroluminescnece (EL), a method of forming a spacer, a method of forming a metallic wire, a method of forming a lens, a method of forming a resist, and a method of forming a light diffusion member, all of the above using the above-described liquid droplet ejection head.
2. Description of Related Art
In an ink jet printer (liquid droplet ejection head) to be used in the conventional printer, or the like, the ink that is ejected in a dragged manner sometimes gets adhered to the circumference of the ink nozzle accompanied by the ejection of the ink droplet, giving rise to the trouble of crooked flight or traveling of the ink droplet or the ejection failure (i.e., poor ejection of the ink droplet). As a solution, with the ink jet head using a particularly high-viscosity ink, the nozzle forming surface is regularly wiped.
The ink jet head has a pump part having assembled together an ink chamber, a piezoelectric element, or the like, and a nozzle forming plate made of stainless steel which is adhered to the liquid droplet ejection surface of the pump part. This nozzle forming plate has formed therein a multiplicity of nozzles (nozzle arrays). Therefore, the wiping is performed along the surface of the nozzle forming plate.
Wiping is generally performed in the following manner. Namely, in a state in which a wiper blade made of rubber is urged against the nozzle forming surface, the wiper blade is relatively moved from end to end in the longer side direction of the nozzle forming surface, whereby the ink adhered to the nozzle forming surface is wiped out.
Since the liquid droplet ejection head is capable of selectively ejecting minute or extremely small liquid droplets from the nozzle arrays, it is applicable to the manufacturing of a color filter for a liquid crystal device, an organic electro luminescence (EL) display device, or the like. It is also expected to be applied to the apparatuses for manufacturing various electronic devices, optical devices, or the like.
When this kind of applied technologies are considered, not only the liquid of relatively low viscosity such as ink but also a liquid of higher viscosity such as resin liquid, or the like, must be made an object of ejection from the nozzle arrays. Therefore, it is required to wipe by strongly urging cloth, or the like, which has impregnated therein a solvent, instead of by using a wiper blade in order to wipe out a liquid of higher viscosity.
In such a case, if the conventional ink jet head (liquid droplet ejection head) is used as it is, the durability of the head itself becomes the problem. Aside from this problem, there is also another problem in that, at the time of wiping, the end of the nozzle forming plate (actually, the assembly inclusive of the silicon cavity which constitutes the pressure chamber of the pump part) sticks to, or catches, the wiping cloth, or the like.
This invention has an object of providing a liquid droplet ejection head which is capable of effectively preventing the above-described problem of catching, or sticking to, the wiping member and a method of wiping. It has also an object of providing an electronic device which is provided with the liquid droplet ejection head, as well as a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display device, a method of manufacturing an organic EL device, a method of manufacturing an electron emission device, a method of manufacturing a PDP device, a method of manufacturing an electrophoretic display device, a method of manufacturing a color filter, a method of manufacturing an organic EL, a method of forming a spacer, a method of forming a metallic wire, a method of forming a lens, a method of forming a resist, and a method of forming a light diffusion member, all of them using the above-described liquid droplet ejection head.